Google Chrome Surges Past 9%, Perhaps from Chrome OS Netbooks

Google's Chrome browser jumped to 9.27 percent in November from 8.5 percent in October, which could be a sign that Chrome OS netbooks are being used by Googlers.

Google's
Chrome Web browser surged to 9.27 percent market share in November, up from 8.5
percent in October, according to the latest statistics from Net Applications.
The
.77 percent gain appeared to come at the expense of Microsoft Internet
Explorer, which dropped to 58.41 percent from 59.18 percent a month ago, and
Mozilla Firefox, which nudged down a tad to 22.81 percent from 22.83 percent.

Of
the major browsers, only Apple's Safari gained share for the month, growing to
5.57 percent from 5.36 percent in October.

But
the star of the November browser numbers was Google's Chrome 7. Share for
Google's latest build of the OS grew 5.64 percent in November, second in growth only to Firefox 3.6, which saw a 6.09 percent
gain between February and March 2010.
The
gain in Chrome 7.0 and in Chrome share overall is likely due to the internal
use of Chrome Operating System netbooks by Google employees and
computer maker partners, such as Acer and Lenovo.
Chrome
OS was due this year, but has been pushed back for reasons Google won't discuss with the
media.

Chrome
OS netbooks are unlikely to launch in time for Christmas but could appear early
next year, vaulting Chrome's market share even further as the main access point
for the machines.
Chrome
also received some more exposure from the launch of Google TV, which still runs
Chrome 5.0. However, the market share numbers don't bear that out.
Chrome
5.O fell from 2.36 percent share in September, to .26 percent in October, when
Google TV launched, to .20 percent in November, the first full month of Google
TV's existence on the Logitech Revue and Sony TVs and Blu-ray players.
Google
also began running Chrome print ads in November in the Los Angeles Times and other
publications.
With increased advertising and awareness, and
Chrome OS netbook test flights, there's no reason why Chrome can't hit the 10
percent market in earlier 2011, possibly by the end of January, as eWEEKspeculated in April.